Output from this three day event is helping to shape the Good Career Guide’s purpose and mission for all young people. Parts that fascinated me the most were the debates around:

How do we define what is a career?

What does ‘good’ guidance look like?

Video footage from students also clearly highlighted that many young people don’t know how to discover their strengths and talents beyond their school experience and academic qualifications. Something which at Capp we are dedicated to overcome through the career development and recruitment assessments available to all young people for free on Jobmi.com

Coinciding with the Good Career Guide event was the publication of the Good Career Guidance report by Gatsby. This report highlighted that many young people aren’t being made aware of the full range of options available to them. The report commissioned by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, builds on the findings of Ofsted’s September 2013 Review and identifies serious gaps in current career provision.

The Gatsby report sets out eight practical recommendations on how to improve career guidance in England’s secondary schools, they included:

A stable careers programme at every school and college

Learning from career and labour market information

Addressing the needs of each school student

Linking curriculum learning to careers

Encounters with employers and employees

Experiences of workplaces

Encounters with further and higher education

Personal guidance

It is clear that there is a lot of work ahead of us if we are going to change young people’s experience of career guidance. But I believe there is reason to be optimistic. As the event last week demonstrated there are many multiple stakeholders willing to genuinely collaborate to provide young people with clearer access to employers and career opportunities in the years ahead.

Aside from the movements that are developing to address career guidance provision, we can all play our part. As employers, parents, aunts, uncles and even friends of young people, we all have chance to share our experience of work and start our own career dialogue.

Next week we will share with you the impact apprenticeships are playing in changing the employability of young people in the UK.

It was an honour to be recognised by the Recruiter this week for Capp’s contribution to the Nestlé School Leaver programme. The evening was hosted by the Recruiter at Grosvenor House in London and was attended by ‘Recruitments’ great and good. We were delighted to be joined at our table by representatives from the Nestlé Academy and Talent team along with clients from Capgemini and Monsoon Accessorise.

We were thrilled that the Recruiter judges were impressed by Capp’s strengths-based assessment methodology.

“An example of a programme that has tangible value. A unique strengths-based assessment methodology sets this entry apart.” said Awards Judge: Tim Campbell MBE, Head of client services at Alexander Mann Solutions.

About the Nestlé Fast Start Programme

Nestlé launched their industry-leading Fast Start programme in 2013, a three year scheme providing school leavers with the opportunity to work in a salaried training role while studying for their degree in Professional Business Practice.

Capp worked in partnership with Nestlé to define the indicators of success and to design an assessment strategy capable of identifying individuals’ potential for success, without relying on candidates’ limited previous work experience.

Results that the programme has delivered back to Nestlé include:

88% of stakeholders thought that the strengths-based approach was the best way to recruit school leavers and a further 88% thought the strengths-based approach differentiated Nestlé from other school leaver programmes.

60% of candidates who applied to Fast Start and 55% of candidates who were successful in reaching Assessment Centre reported that their parents had not completed a university degree.

Moreover, 70% of candidates who applied to Fast Start attended a state-run or state funded school and 78% of candidates who were successful in reaching Assessment Centre attended a state-run or state funded school. This illustrates that the strengths-based assessment process is both reaching out to candidates from a more diverse social background and that the assessment process is not disadvantaging these candidates from progressing in the process.

• Graduate recruitment was up by 4.3% in 2013 and is expected to rise by 10.2% in 2014.
• Industries that were seeing the greatest rise in graduate vacancies include: IT/Telecom, Public Sector, Banking and Energy.
• London, South East and West Midlands are seeing the greatest growth in graduate vacancies.
• 50% of AGR members surveyed now have a school leaver programme and a further 15.4% expect to launch one in 2014.
• The number of applicants per vacancy varies between Graduates’s (85) and School Leavers (25).

The AGR data also echo’s the global graduate recruitment trends being reported out of the US from the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC). GMAC’s annual poll of employers conducted in 2013, covers 211 employers at 185 companies in 33 countries worldwide.

GMAC have recently reported:

• More than three-quarters of employers that plan to hire business school graduates in 2014 expect to maintain or increase their hiring levels compared with 2013.
• 87% of employers plan to maintain (43%) or increase (43%) headcounts for new MBA hires.
• Salaries in 2014 expected to increase for Business Graduates; a majority of employers seeking to hire business school graduates in 2014 (between 51% and 58%) plan to increase annual base salary levels for new hires at or above the rate of inflation.

These international shoots of early career recruitment recovery are good news for the many school leavers and graduates seeking to be employed.

The challenge for many recruiters right now is how to identify and assess the most exemplar apprentice and graduates to ensure they recruit the highest calibre of applicants whilst attending into increased candidate numbers. Many of our graduate recruiter clients saw their applications double in 2013.

Capp’s recruitment solution ‘Strengths Selector’ successfully supported Barclays Investment Bank, EY, Morrisons, Microsoft and Nestlé recruit diverse and socially mobile early career talent in 2013 and into 2014. If you would like to know more about our work and view our case studies with these clients please contact us at nicky.garcea@capp.coGurpal.minhas@capp.co or follow us on twitter @nickygarcea @gurpalminhas.

Capp has been a proud partner of Barclays since 2011 when we first implemented the Capp strengths-based telephone and face-to-face interview across early year recruitment in the Investment and Private Bank. Since Barclays implemented their diversity programme they have seen the following results:

Moved from the bottom of SEO and RARE’s League Tables to one of the leading BAME recruiters – with a 200% increase in intern offers accepted by SEO/RARE candidates within 2 years

The most challenging division, Investment Banking, has seen a 9 – 12% increase in BAME from total candidates for Spring/Summer programmes

A 36% increase in applications from black candidates and a 200% increase in offers accepted by black interns

Barclays are not alone in finding that Capp’s strengths-based products and solutions improve the diversity of their recruits. In a recent evaluation completed by Capp for Nestlé, the results of the first year of introducing the Capp strengths-based methodology across their early careers recruitment process highlighted that more school leavers from socially diverse backgrounds applied and 50% were the first in their family to attend University. In 2012 the number of women recruited into graduate technical roles rose from 22% to 66%.

In our experience it is a combination of the following six steps that will help ensure a reduction in bias in the application process and secure diverse and socially mobile recruits:

Develop a balance of strengths that are gender and diversity neutral

Ensure that all adverts and candidate communication is attractive to diverse groups

Design candidate screening tools that are free from adverse impact

Create interviews that are validated and scripted ensuring greater assessor consistency and reduction in unconscious bias

Train all assessors thoroughly in how to mark accurately and differentiate high, average and low performance. On average 84% of assessors believe the Capp interviews and exercises are easier to score than competency interviews and exercises

Evaluate continually and always be prepared to learn from every cohort and potential outlier.

We would love to know your thoughts on how you are improving the diversity or social mobility of your recruitment process, please join the conversation and connect with us on Twitter #RecruitingDiverseTalent@NickyGarcea @CappMarketing or to find out how Capp can help you improve ‘recruiting diverse talent’ across your organisation contact me directly on nicky.garcea@capp.co or uk.linkedin.com/in/nickygarcea

Ever wondered how you can differentiate yourself as graduate recruiter? Would you like to attract and retain the best early career talent? Then you should read our latest publication in this month’s Strategic HR Review, ‘Engaging graduates to recruit the best’.

This article explores how strengths-based recruitment is enabling graduate recruiters to engage, attract and select the best talent and draws on the example of major graduate recruiter, Ernst & Young, to show how strengths assessment can be used.

This article shows how the CappStrengths-based Recruitment Methodology and the Situational Strengths Test engages candidates by providing them with a realistic job preview of the role. They help candidates to make informed decisions about their own fit. They help organisations to select the candidates who match their requirements more effectively from those who do not, delivering better outcomes for both parties.

If you would like to learn more about Ernst and Young’s journey, you can view the full article here.

Capp is delighted to announce that Nicky Garcea, Director at Capp will be speaking at The FIRM’s Winter Conference on Friday 15 November.

The full day event, sponsored by Capp and Guardian Jobs, is being held in the heart of London’s West End, at the iconic CBI Conference Centre, Centre Point Tower, Oxford Street, London WC1A 1DU.

Gary Franklin, founder of The FIRM (The Forum for In-house Recruitment Managers), invited Nicky back to speak again after receiving great feedback from the Innovations in Recruitment event held in Manchester on Friday 27 September #FIRMday

Strengths-based Innovations in Graduate Recruitment

Nicky will be presenting an interactive session where you will hear how clients such as Nestlé, Barclays and EY have embedded strengths-based assessments throughout their graduate, intern and school leaver programmes. In the session you will:

Know how strengths can be used robustly and efficiently as an on-line volume sift.

Experience first-hand the difference between a strengths-based interview and a competency interview.

Be able to justify the business case for strengths.

Capp is also hosting space throughout the day, where you will be able to meet some of the Capp team to talk about how we can help you find the right talent.

For further event programme details and to purchase a ticket please book here

Last Friday, I had the fortunate experience of being a speaker at the Innovations in Recruitment event, hosted by The FIRM (The Forum for In-house Recruitment Managers) in Manchester. This was my first experience of The Firm, who prides itself as a leading membership for in-house recruiters run by in-house recruiters (set up by Gary Franklin).

The striking appeal of this event is the practical nature of the presentations. This is a truly ‘recruiter enabling’ membership. It also provides recruiters with the space and time to benchmark and learn from fellow professionals.

Listening to the delegates and learning from the overall themes, it is clear that many recruiters are offering their businesses exceptional, innovative and client-led solutions.

My five top tips from the day are:

Take pride in insourcing – several of the delegates in the room highlighted that they had taken recruitment back in-house after poor retention rates were reached through recruiting via agencies and RPO solutions. Drivers for insourcing included the in-house recruiters’ ability to understand the business needs, knowing their stakeholders and being able to translate this into good attraction and selection practice. Businesses with newly insourced recruitment teams were reporting increases in quality of hire and improvements in retention.

Have a video identity! – Barnaby Cook from Casual Films showcased the difference that hosting video on websites, YouTube and TV commercials had on application numbers and brand perception. Successful case studies showcased at the event included Teachfirst and SGOSS. One of my favourite parts of the day was the film on how to make a film.

Be an informed buyer – Lisa Scales from TribePad and her client Rebecca Palmer from Speedy provided an enlightening presentation for all recruiters considering purchasing an ATS system. Lisa and Rebecca offered delegates key pointers on how to select an ATS provider. Tips included knowing functional priorities, being clear on non-negotiable requirements seeking live demonstrations in a pitch and asking sales people to perform irregular tasks.

Manage your community – Serges Sergiou from SMRS highlighted that despite still being a minority activity, community management needs to become a priority for the informed recruiter. Serges’ tips to recruiters to ensure strong community management included: being a connector, having rules, knowing how to protect your herd, being multi-modal and always having something interesting to say.

It was an enlightening day to hear from so many passionate individuals and how in-house recruiters are reclaiming their power and demonstrating the difference their skills and expertise can bring to their business. This was my first experience of The Firm and I would urge any in-house recruiter not affiliated with them to sign up!

Last Thursday, 12 September, I was an invited speaker at the eArcu client event at the Grange City Hotel, London. eArcu is a 2nd generation recruitment platform provider and Capp’s chosen applicant tracking partner. The event was expertly compered by CAThr3e’sBen Jackson. It was attended by over 50 of eArcu’s clients and fellow speakers included:

There was a genuine buzz at this event, with speakers and delegates enthused by the impact that technology can have in assisting the in-house recruiter to:

Recruit through multiple devices – Andy demonstrated how the eArcu responsive grid technology ensures that application sites adapt across all handheld or tablet devices. Andy highlighted how this technology has been implemented in Capp’s work with Nestlé as they seek to attract both school leavers and graduates.

Create candidate pipelines – Alastair highlighted how Ingenium People help to empower inhouse recruiters to use social media to build their own candidate pipelines. Alastair also showed how revolutionary sites such as ‘Facebook graph search’ is allowing recruiters to find people within set locations and sharing similar skills. Despite these online developments Alastair was quick also to acknowledge the importance of still picking up the phone to connect with exceptional candidates.

Create consistent candidate experiences – Damien from Daesign blew the audience away with demonstrations of ‘serious games’. Damien provided insights into how clients like EE have harnessed avatars to deliver introductions to assessment days and how Renault has delivered online sales training through their sales manager games.

Select for Strengths – My presentation demonstrated how strengths (measuring performance, energy and experience) can be assessed online through Capp’s Situational Strengths Test (SST). I provided examples of how clients like EY, Nestlé and Morrisons use the SST to provide candidates with a cost effective, realistic job preview as well as online strengths-based volume screening. I also demonstrated the ways in which strengths can be integrated within an organisation’s capability framework and the difference between strengths and competency-based interviewing.

The event concluded with a panel discussion, reviewing how handheld mobile solutions for both candidates and inhouse recruiters could make attraction and recruitment accessible anytime, all the time, for all.

If you would like to know more about how Capp harnesses technology to deliver our end-to-end recruitment solutions, please contact me, nicky.garcea@capp.co

Beliefs through to actions, values through to destiny. But if values become our destiny, what does this mean for the world of work? How can we harness this in recruitment, and assessment?

Many organisations aim to embed their core values into the recruitment process – and are keen to ensure that candidates fit with these values before making a hiring decision. Here at Capp, we partner with organisations who want to ensure they hire talent who will not only perform, but will do so in the right way – aligned to their key values. Below we reflect on this concept of values-based recruitment.

When we behave in line with our values we feel comfortable, energised and draw satisfaction from what we are doing, while if we are required to act against the grain of our values we lose energy and can become de-motivated. This carries with it considerable implications for any recruitment process. We also know that when you assess against values, you assess against the organisational culture. When you get this right and hire talent which shares your organisational values, people stay in post longer, are more engaged, and more productive.

Contrast this with competencies – we know people have the capacity to demonstrate competencies not consistent with their values; and that developing competencies is easier – one can practice over time for example. Developing values and strengths is different; values are deeply embedded for an individual, often depending on one’s background and experience, but not specific to a work environment.

Many of our clients, such as Barclays, make a clear link between their values and the strengths we empower them to assess in their talent selection process. A robust strengths-based approach provides real evidence of ‘behaviours driven by values’. The strengths-based selection process frees candidates from being assessed only what they have done, or can do, and instead allows them to demonstrate what they really want to do – and what they really want to is live and work according to their values.

Do you recruit based on values? Are you confident that your values link to performance? Would you like us to demonstrate how we can empower your organisation to drive selection and development based on your core values? We would love to hear from you. If you would like to hear more about how Capp deliver Values-Based Recruitment please contact Gurpal.Minhas@cappeu.com

A discussion panel led by a diverse mix of graduate recruiters explored the shades of grey involved in attracting and recruiting for entry level talent.

How do recruiters tap into this talent pool? Whose responsibility is it to create opportunities at an entry level rather than at graduate level? What is best practice for assessing entry level recruits fairly?

These were some of the questions addressed during and after the session.

What’s our take on this?

First, we support advising recruiters to consider “what other programmes do we offer that aren’t graduate level?” Of course, there are budgetary and practical considerations associated with this. Recruiters need to clarify where best to place entry level recruits in the business and manage the cost of designing and implementing programmes that are of mutual benefit to the individual and the employer.

This may sound like a taxing prospect for employers. However, an interesting revelation is that entry level recruitment isn’t worlds away from graduate recruitment. In fact, the entry level candidates we are seeing with our own clients are just as hungry, intellectually capable and in some cases, more commercially minded than their existing graduates.

Our advice to employers would be not to underestimate this talent pool. Look at your business needs, but we bet you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the calibre of this emerging talent pipeline!

Second, we recognise the joint responsibility of recruiters and schools in generating opportunities for entry level recruits. Schools need to promote entry level opportunities as an equally decent alternative to university, while recruiters need to engage proactively in making links with schools and colleges.

Finally: the assessment piece. How do you fairly assess a group of people with very little work experience? Competency-based recruitment focuses on past behavioural experience for which school leavers will struggle to provide examples.

Instead we want to look at potential. Strengths-based assessment provides the answer. Assessing candidates on their learning agility, energy and motivation provides a dynamic insight into their potential to excel.

To learn more about Capp’s work in entry level talent, please look out for our upcoming case study with Nestlé and their innovative Fast Start Programme, bringing great school leaver and apprentice talent into their business.